LEGO confirms May the 4th 2023 set was inspired by a Comic-Con exclusive

The

team has confirmed that one of this year’s May the 4th sets was inspired by the reaction to a previous Comic-Con exclusive.

Launching alongside two new dioramas, a third UCS X-wing, a

five-pack and at least one new The Mandalorian Season 3 set on May 1 is . It’s the first widely-available ship at this smaller display scale since 2009’s 7778 Midi-scale Millennium Falcon and 2010’s 8099 Midi-scale Imperial Star Destroyer – but we have seen one more exclusive model within the same scope in the years between.

That’s 2020’s

, a 459-piece rendition of the iconic rebel cruiser originally produced for San Diego Comic-Con. When the pandemic put paid to the physical convention in California, the Group distributed the set through and exclusively in the US. It’s pretty hard to come by these days as a result, soaring above its RRP on the aftermarket.

Those of us unable to get our hands on that Empire Strikes Back 40th-anniversary set can at least take solace in knowing it’s served another purpose: inspiring this year’s

, part of the Group’s range celebrating Return of the Jedi’s 40th anniversary.

“The inspiration to do this set [came] when we saw the really positive reaction to [

] that was done for Comic-Con,” Design Manager Michael Lee Stockwell tells Brick Fanatics. “I thought, okay, maybe there’s something here. And so then we started bouncing around, [doing] some sketch models and whatnot.

“We could do a lot of different things. This is a set that typically in UCS scale would be very, very big, so we could take one of the very iconic

ships – even people that don’t know , I think still recognise that as something from the universe – and so that was one of the things that kind of said, ‘We can start here.’”

Beyond just its format, the relative size of the Nebulon-B also helped to inform the specific scale chosen for

– though it wasn’t the only factor.

“That comes down to sometimes just taking a look at what elements will actually allow us to capture certain details,” Stockwell adds, “and maybe thinking that the scale we started with the medical frigate was actually quite a good scale, and would allow us to keep it on shelves and not take up too much room.”

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Measuring 43cm long and 18cm wide,

is certainly a lot easier to display than 2011’s gigantic 10221 Super Star Destroyer, which comes in at a colossal 124.5cm in length. It’s a good distance cheaper, too.

is for £59.99 / $69.99 / €69.99. The 630-piece set will start shipping from May 1. You can keep track of all of this year’s May the 4th deals through our dedicated page.

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